Collapse
by jormungandRising
Summary: Your name is NEPETA VANTAS and you are in BIG TROUBLE. You are the figurehead of a rising cult, the Empress and subjugglators are very, very pissed off, and the end of the world may or may not be near. What do you do? A bloodswap. TW: possible blood/gore. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

Nepeta darted through the trees, running for her life.

She wasn't screwed when the culling drones busted in on her speech. She wasn't screwed when Sollux's powers shorted out inexplicably and left them defenseless. She wasn't even screwed when they sent in psionics of their own.

Then, they sent the subjugglator.

Nepeta could hear her giving chase. She could feel the chucklevoodoos pushing into her brain, and it sent shivers down her spine. She had to get back to the cave, _pronto._

"I can see you, mutant. There is no escape," the subjugglator intoned, her voice piercing through the trees.

The sun was almost up. Crap. If she didn't make it back, she would be roasted alive. The subjugglator would be, too, but that was no consolation. THEY were replaceable.

There! In between two boulders was a tiny, innocuous cranny. Nepeta slipped inside and found herself in cult headquarters. Safe.

"Nepsis, you're okay!" someone honked.

"Hi Gamzee!" Nepeta waved at her friend. Gamzee grinned lazily.

"Speaker's been all up and worried, you better go comfort him." Nepeta rolled her eyes. Her main cult subordinate, the Speaker, was the most uptight person she knew. He was only a sweep older than Nepeta herself, but he had given himself an adult title (which he refused to admit was one letter too short) and had a frustrating air of superiority.

Nepeta entered the main hall to cheers from her followers. It was exhilarating, knowing that all of them practically worshipped her.

"Friends and fellow trolls, we are now one town closer to taking down the Empress!" Nepeta shouted to great applause. She threw her hands up in the air, grinning at her people.

* * *

Name: NEPETA VANTAS

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: SCARLET

* * *

Elsewhere, a subjugglator stood in silence. She smiled, the sticky paint on her face contorting the grin into a horrifying death mask.

She had been foiled by the cat freak once. It would not happen again, and she would not allow it. Her target was within reach, and a new color was soon to join the plethora of others.

She twirled a lock of curly hair around her finger as she smoothly walked back towards the town, where her ride awaited. Next time, the whip that lurked in her strife specibus would contact flesh. Next time, she would hear the delightful screams of her new victim.

Next time, the cat troll would pay.

* * *

Name: ARADIA MAKARA

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: INDIGO

* * *

**A/N: Hi! So I started this new bloodswap fic, and I would REALLY LIKE opinions and advice. I have a nice big plan and plot going for this but I don't know how much my writing's improved since starting "Snakes and Scoundrels."**

**Oh and if someone found their way here from there, I am SO SORRY about that. I'm afraid the fic was a bit of a train wreck, and it's currently on hiatus until I can edit it into something worth reading-which might take a while. In the meantime, enjoy this weird bloodswap thing that I've written. **

**It's still true that I am NOT AT ALL a shipfic writer. There will be ships, never fear, but they will NOT be the focus of the story. The focus of the story is the plot. Ships that will probably appear: Katnep, Tavris, Erisol, Meowrails, and one really weird crack one-Terezi and Feferi. In this fic, it works somehow. I don't understand either. I'm not saying what quadrants, though, and there might be more. **

**~jormungand**


	2. Chapter 2

~~angelicApocalypse began trolling gorgeousAntagonist~~

AA: i believe i have f0und the general l0cati0n 0f their base.

GA: Good

GA: I Shall Notify The Empress

AA: n0. i will inf0rm her myself, 0nce i am certain 0f their whereab0uts.

AA: d0 n0t w0rry, kanaya.

AA: y0ur saw will taste bl00d s00n en0ugh.

~~angelicApocalypse ceased trolling gorgeousAntagonist~~

* * *

Nepeta crept cautiously out of the secret tunnel and into the moonlight. She looked down, double-checking that she had worn her symbol today in grey, not scarlet. She was safe.

She adjusted her cat helmet and ensured that its lenses covered her eyes, which were beginning to fill in with red. Today, she was going to see her moirail.

She sheathed her claws as she neared Equius's hive. As a blueblood, his home was much larger than it needed to be, full of twists and turns and random spare turrets. Nepeta made a buzzbeast-line towards it, careful to avoid his neighbors. The highbloods were very dangerous.

Equius lived in a sprawling manor in the highblood district. There weren't many other hives near his, but across the gulch there was another royal-blue troll.

Nepeta had never directly met Equius's neighbor, but she had been told that the troll, a certain Ms. Zahhak, was a loyal follower of the Empress. Nepeta was very careful to avoid that particular hive.

She reached Equius's hive and tapped on the door. Equius opened it and engulfed his moirail in a STRONG hug.

"Hi Equius!" she burbed.

"Hello, Nepeta." Nepeta followed Equius into his respite-block, narrating the adventure in a manner that Equius stated several times contained far too many cat puns.

"The playful kitty asks CT: 'So meow have you been?' AC bats at CT's shoe," she narrated once they had settled themselves into a pile.

"I have told you, Nepeta. This roleplaying is foolish." Nepeta pouted.

"But I like the game!"

"This is foolishness. You will stop now."

"Why are you so lame?"

"I am not lame. I am sane," Equius protested.

"Lame."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"You nefur play games with me," Nepeta complained. "You have to like games, though! Efurryone likes _some_ kind of games!" Equius crossed his arms.

"I will play games with you when you will tell me your blood color." Nepeta frowned.

Equius had been her moirail ever since they'd met in the woods one night, nearly six sweeps ago. Nepeta had been stalking a great wild beast, and she'd accidentally pounced on Equius instead. He was lost, and when Nepeta helped him find his way back to his hive they decided to swap contact information.

She'd been hemanonymous even then, and it was always a sore point between the duo. Equius was very supportive of the hemospectrum, and if he knew that Nepeta was a mutant he would never speak to her again. He might even try to cull her.

"Equius, you know I won't tell you," Nepeta replied. "I just don't meow why you think it's such a big deal!"

"One day, I'll find out," Equius promised.

"Nope."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"You _will_ tell me."

"Nope."

"Yes."

"Nooooooooooooooooo."

"One day I will order you to tell me."

"And I won't answer." They watched each other for a long moment, meeting eyes despite their mutual wearing of dark glasses. Equius was dripping with sweat.

"I will make you tell me." Equius took off his glasses, revealing his single seven-pupiled eye. He continued staring at Nepeta.

"You wouldn't," she gasped. Equius was psychic, and Nepeta had known that for sweeps, but he had never before turned his powers on _her._

"I will if I have to."

"Bully!" Nepeta stood up, knocking their pile to pieces. "If you try, I'll leave. I'll leave befur you can find out anything!"

"You will tell me your blood color."

"No." Equius began to raise a hand to his temple, and Nepeta fled for the door. He couldn't know her blood color. He couldn't. She knew exactly what would happen if he did find out, and although she valued her moirallegiance she valued her life more.

"I will find out!"

"No!" Nepeta bolted back towards the woods, slamming the door behind her. Her stamina was incredible, and she didn't stop running until she reached the trees.

Back in the blueblood neighborhood, Equius crossed his arms and looked in the direction that Nepeta had fled. She would be back eventually, he knew that much, but when she'd return he couldn't say.

* * *

Name: EQUIUS SERKET

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: CERULEAN

* * *

Gamzee had just left the grand hive of the Cult for the first time in over a sweep, and he was thoroughly enjoying it. The fresh air felt good on his face and horns, and he stared blankly up at the pink moon through the trees. It was a miracle.

He had been sitting for a while, honking softly at the sky, when Nepeta broke through his daydream.

"Gamzee? Gamzee, you should be inside," Nepsis told him. Her words barely pierced his trance-like state, and he turned, a blank look on his face.

"Honk."

"Gamzee, go inside. It's almost daylight." Nepeta took the absent-minded brownblood by the wrist and dragged him inside as he continued to stare at the moons. As soon as they stepped into the Cult's hideout, they were practically jumped upon by the Speaker.

"Lady Vantas, where hath thee been? Thy people hath been waiting. Thou ought to speak for them," Speaker petitioned. Nepeta rolled her eyes.

"Furst of all, you sound stupid. 'Hath' is singular. Secondly, go away." Nepeta glared at Speaker, and the olive-blood was forced to back down.

"Thou hast won this battle, but the next shall be my victory."

"Go away, Speaker." Once Nepeta was sure that Speaker was gone, she turned back to Gamzee, who had spaced out again. She poked him slightly and he jolted back to attention.

"Hey Nepsis. So where've you been?" he asked.

"Hunting," Nepeta bluffed. She knew that Gamzee wouldn't see though her—

"You were with Equius again, right?"

"WHAT?" Nepeta nearly shrieked. Gamzee let out a long, low honk. "How did you—how do you—_WHAT?_" Gamzee's only response was yet another 'honk.' "Gamzee, tell me how you know about Equius. _Now._" She unsheathed her claws, and the spaced-out troll relented.

"Saw you," he muttered, almost too quiet for Nepeta to hear.

"You saw me? How? When?" she demanded.

"While ago. I was in a treebeast, and I spotted you in the highblood neighborhood." Nepeta relaxed slightly, but still didn't hide her claw gloves.

"How long ago?"

"'Bout a sweep." Nepeta sighed. He'd known that long? Well, at least she knew that he wouldn't give her away. If he hadn't already, then she was probably safe.

"Why were you in the treebeast in the first place?"

"I was all up and lookin' for Kalamine," the brownblood explained. "That was when she disappeared, and Speaker had me track her. Then I saw you."

"Ah." Nepeta was still spinning the scenario around in her head. She knew what Gamzee was talking about, of course—Kalamine had been one of the first trolls to find Nepeta, back before she knew her destiny in the Cult. About a sweep ago, Kalamine had mysteriously disappeared while on a mission. The investigation revealed nothing for several perigees until it was found out that the adult troll had been captured and culled for remaining on Alternia after her conscription.

Nepeta left, satisfied with Gamzee's answer, but Gamzee stayed behind, watching the sky grow slowly lighter through the doorway.

He honked one last time before making his way back to his respite-block.

* * *

Name: GAMZEE NITRAM

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: BROWN

* * *

**A/N: Yay this chapter is longer. I apologize for the brevity of the introduction, but I'm not that incredible at beginnings (yet). Just as an FYI, these chapters will start to get longer and longer as I get into the stride of my writing. If you like really short chapters, then good for you. Get out ;). Some might not get much longer than this one, but as I continue there will be chapters in the multiple-thousands of words. I write original novels in my spare time, and I can state from experience that my average chapter is somewhere around 8 pages in Microsoft Word, and well over five thousand words. Expect some chapters like that in the future.  
In other notes, thank you SO MUCH to my reviewers, favoriters, and followers. You guys are great! XD **

**Just for the heck of it (and more for my benefit than anyone else's), here is a basic layout of how this story is going to work for the first few chapters. I will try to introduce two new characters each chapter, but that rule might bend a little eventually. The bloodswaps were chosen for irony, humor, and the pain of Alternia. Expect some actions that are different from how the canon characters would behave. I've kept most of them as close as I could to their canon counterparts, but certain characters are going to behave very differently simply based on the change in their upbringings (Feferi and Tavros, I'm looking at you here). Obviously, I kept first names with the characters, and surnames with their blood castes. Feferi, Sollux, Tavros, and Vriska will probably see minor changes in their typing quirks. **

**Oh, and there WILL be Sgrub. Just wait. I think that's about it :)**

**Oh, and constructive criticism is always welcome. **


	3. Chapter 3

~~gorgeousAntagonist began trolling angelicApocalypse~~

GA: I Have Spotted A Very Suspicious Character Visiting My Neighbor

GA: Permission To Investigate?

AA: granted.

AA: d0 n0t all0w him t0 interrupt y0ur search. i warn y0u, he may try.

GA: Thank You

GA: And Good Luck In Your Hunt

~~gorgeousAntagonist ceased trolling angelicApocalypse~~

* * *

~~caringClarity began trolling twotimesAdamant~~

CC: )(I Sollux!

TA: hii feferii

TA: have you found iit yet?

CC: Yea)(!

CC: I'm coming over to your )(ive, k?

CC: Don't try and tell me you can't tell me w)(ere it is. I know -EVERYTHING.

TA: ff dont come

TA: ii have…gue2t2.

CC: Well poopie for t)(em because I don't care.

TA: 2eriiou2ly dont

TA: ii mean iit

TA: 2end me the iinfo through trolliian iif you have two. dont come two my hiive.

CC: NY-E)(.

CC: See you at your place!

TA: ff dont…

~~caringClarity ceased trolling twotimesAdamant~~

TA: fuck

~~twotimesAdamant ceased trolling caringClarity~~

* * *

"Guyth, we're going two have company," Sollux called to the others in his respite-block. Gamzee only honked in response, turning back towards the sopor pie that Nepeta was trying to confiscate from him. Sollux rolled his eyes behind his glasses.

"What do you mean, we're going to have company?" Nepeta asked.

"FF got thome thtuff for me and she wantth two drop it off right now. I athked her not two but she didn't care."

"Well, shoot," Nepeta muttered. "Sollux, could mew stop her at the door?"

"I doubt it. FF hath really thtrong psthionicth, remember?"

"So do mew."

"She'll jutht blatht through a wall."

"I _meant,_ could you get the things from her at the door and just not let her in?"

"Oh. Well, maybe, but she'll probably want two come in…"

"Tell her no," Nepeta insisted, "it'd be so mewch easier!"

"It'th not that eathy." But the two's argument was interrupted by Gamzee's honk of delight as he finished off his sopor pie.

"Gamzee, no! I thought you were going sober!" Nepeta snatched the pie tin out of Gamzee's hands and threw it out Sollux's already broken window.

"Hey, eathy on the property," he protested pointlessly.

"Gamzee, no more drugs. Drugs are _bad._"

"Honk."

"And this is why you don't get sopor at headquarters," Nepeta sighed. "Come on, Gamzee. And stay _away_ from Sollux's recuperacoon!"

"Motherfuckin' miracles, sis," he mumbled. "All them motherfuckin miracles all up in my vision…" Nepeta earned the achievement: Facepalm 2x Combo. Just then, the doorbell rang.

"Sollux? Sollux, I know you're in there," someone called.

"Hang on, FF, I'm coming," Sollux shouted at the door. He swept the papers he and Nepeta had been working on into a folder labeled 'Photographs of Bees,' and ushered the two rebels into a hidden space behind the silicombs.

"I'm coming in," Feferi warned, and Nepeta heard the door click open, illuminated in red and blue light as Feferi entered Sollux's respite-block.

"FF, thith really ithn't the betht time," Sollux protested, but Feferi pushed past him to deposit a thick folder full of papers on Sollux's already messy desk.

"Listen, I don't trust Trollian, you know that. Now, we're going to talk about these right now and I don't want to hear any objections."

"But FF—"

"That's an objection." Feferi opened the folder and set out an array of papers so that Sollux could see them. "Now, you're the better cryptologist here, so I trust you to go over my work, but I found these in the…place that we discussed." Nepeta couldn't help but listen in. She probably wasn't supposed to hear them, but she was extremely curious.

"FF, can we pleathe do thith another time?"

"No."

"You're tho bothy."

"I don't want to hear one more lisping sentence out of you until I'm finished speaking," Feferi commanded, using her psionics to shove Sollux backwards. He crossed his arms and frowned. Feferi pointed at something on one of the pages. "I think this is where it starts, see? The alphabet reads left to right instead of right to left, though, so we might have a little trouble there. I analyzed the script, and I'm pretty sure these five," Feferi pointed out more things that Nepeta couldn't see, "are vowels or vowel-equivalents."

"FF, I can decrypt them on my own. Pleathe, jutht leave. I'm buthy doing other thingth right now…" Feferi groaned.

"I don't get why you're so insistent upon…" Just then, Gamzee decided to sample the mind honey. He burst out of concealment and started going crazy over whatever Sollux and Feferi were looking at, spouting what sounded to Nepeta like gibberish. Sollux was facepalming, and Feferi looked shocked. When she realized what was happening, she lit up with psionic light and peeled Gamzee away from their project. Sollux groaned.

"FF, thee, thith ith why I didn't want two do thith now…"

"Hey. I think I've seen this face," Feferi muttered. "Yeah, I have, it was that one time…"

"FF? What are you talking about?" Sollux demanded, turning towards the yellow-blood. Feferi was still focused on Gamzee, who continued to talk quietly to himself.

"You've been working with rebels," Feferi declared.

"Oh, fuck," Sollux groaned. "If you tell anyone, Feferi, even a thingle one of your thtupid neighborth, I will dethtroy you."

"Don't worry, I won't tell," laughed Feferi, flicking a loose strand of hair out of her face. "But…"

"But what?"

"You have to let me in on it," she whispered, still grinning. She noticed Gamzee, who seemed to have recovered from the effects of the mind honey, spacing out and staring towards Sollux's recuperacoon. She gently lifted him away from Sollux's belongings.

Just then, Nepeta sneezed. Unable to remain concealed any longer, she stood up, releasing the blades of her claw gloves. Her knees and hands were covered in mind honey, which she wiped off on Sollux's torn curtains.

"And you'll be another rebel!" Feferi bubbled, grinning. "Nice to meet you!"

"Um…" Nepeta decided to worry about the mysterious psionic later. For now, she walked over to Gamzee and prevented him from taste-testing Sollux's blue sopor slime.

"Nepeta…" Sollux groaned, sinking into a chair.

"What catpunned to Gamzee?" Nepeta asked, turning to Sollux. "Was that suppurrsed to catpun?"

"Nothing wath thuppothed two happen. Gamthee wath thuppothed two thtay _away_ from the mind honey. It'th an intelligenthe boothter, he wath temporarily very thmart," Sollux groaned.

"So you're the mystery leader," Feferi mused, staring intently at Nepeta's greyed-out symbol. "I should've figured!" Nepeta took a step back in alarm, nearly falling into Sollux's beehives.

"No!" she bluffed. "I'm nobody!"

"You're wearing a greyed-out symbol, and you're hanging around with this guy, whose picture I've seen on wanted posters for treason. _And_ you're consulting Sollux about something, and I _know_ that his 'Photographs of Bees' folder contains anything but," Feferi deduced. "Yeah, you're a rebel."

"But…" Nepeta feebly protested.

"Don't worry, I have no intentions of reporting you," Feferi continued. "You heard me—I want to be involved in this. I can help you with things that you probably can't do yourself. I'm a _master_ hacker, as good as Sollux. I'm almost certain that the government's on his trail, from what I've heard lately on Trollian and such, but they don't know anything about me besides the location of my house and the fact that I own a husktop."

"I don't trust you," Nepeta declared. "You may be this master hacker, but how do we know you're not really working for the Empurress?" Feferi shrugged and grinned.

"Well, I_ could_ tell you just to ask Sollux, but I think I'll make it simple. You get to choose to trust me! And I don't really care if you do or you don't, but I'm on your side regardless," she answered. Nepeta continued to watch distrustfully.

"I don't believe mew." Feferi grinned.

"Just know this—I'm not working for the Empress. The only person I work for is myself—and the only thing I want is the end of the world as we know it."

* * *

Name: FEFERI CAPTOR

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: YELLOW

* * *

Name: SOLLUX MEGIDO

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: MAROON

* * *

**A/N: I'm SO SORRY about how long it took me to get this up. Just a warning, the updates will be pretty slow for this fic. I have a ridiculously crowded summer schedule and I'll be unable to access internet for most of it, unfortunately. I'm leaving tomorrow for something else and I won't even have my computer for two weeks, so it might be as much as a month before you see your next chapter. I really wish I could promise to post a new section as soon as I get back, but the fact is, I probably won't be able to. :(**

**We're officially halfway finished introducing the characters! Next chapter, I will officially introduce Karkat and Kanaya-I know everyone's *dying* to know their colors (not). If only this site had color text, then you'd already know Kanaya's, but since we don't I'll just keep her a secret because it's fun to keep secrets. Chapter five will be Eridan and Terezi, and after them will come Vriska and Tavros. Then, finally, the plot will surface. Hehehehehe...**

**And as always, constructive criticism is more than welcome. I'm still not too experienced with handling other people's characters, and I'm worried that I've taken them a little TOO out of canon character. Also, I'm terrible at cat puns. **

**If this author note drags on any longer I might have to steal my friend's idea and start calling it an author rant. Thanks for reading! XD**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry about the pre-chapter note, but I realized that some of my timing might be confusing. So for reference, the first three chapters were each on separate, consecutive days. This chapter happens at the same time as the previous, however. The events of this chapter occur later during the same night as Nepeta and Gamzee's interactions with Sollux and Feferi. **

* * *

The sun was rising over the desert, shining far too brightly for any troll to look at—not like Karkat minded all that much, but the brightness was growing a touch too brilliant for his tastes. Yes, he could withstand the sun, but that didn't mean that he FELT like roasting his ocular spheres in the orange glow. He rather liked his vision and didn't plan upon losing it, despite Kanaya's insistence that his immunity to sunlight applied to his oculars as well.

As the light grew bright and hot, he closed the mostly opaque shades covering his windows and groaned. The night had been a dull one, like most of his nights. There really wasn't much to do in the desolation of the Alternian desert.

His husktop pinged.

~~gorgeousAntagonist began trolling carcinoGeneticist~~

GA: Karkat?

GA: Karkat Are You There?

CG: WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?

GA: There Is No Need For Such Brusqueness

GA: I Merely Wondered If You Had Acquired The Pigments I Desired

CG: YES, I HAVE YOUR STUPID DYE.

CG: ARE YOU EXPECTING ME TO BRING IT TO YOU? BECAUSE IF YOU ARE, THEN YOU MIGHT NEED TO CHANGE YOUR PLANS. I DON'T FEEL LIKE TRAVELLING ALL THE WAY TO YOUR STUPID HIVE. WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU EVEN LIVE?

GA: The Material Is Not For Me Personally

GA: It Is For The Empress's New Garments

GA: She Has Commissioned A Gown For Her Proper Ascendance And She Will Be Most Displeased If It Is Late

CG: THE EMPRESS CAN SUCK MY BULGE. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF SHE'S 'DISPLEASED,' I WOULD RATHER AVOID BEING BURNED TO A CRISP OR EATEN BY ZOMBIES.

CG: YOU DO REALIZE THAT'S A DISTINCT POSSIBILITY WHEN I LEAVE MY HIVE, RIGHT?

GA: Yes I Am Aware

GA: But I Doubt That Her Condescension Will Care

CG: TELL HER CONDESCENSION TO WAIT FOR ONCE. I CAN'T FUCKING PULL THIS STUFF OUT OF MY NOOK, ZAHHAK.

CG: I'M GOING TO SLEEP. FUCK OFF.

~~carcinoGeneticist is now an idle troll~~

GA: Well Then

~~gorgeousAntagonist ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist~~

Karkat slammed his husktop shut and rolled his eyes. Why were all his friends such utter losers? He considered complaining about his Past Self's willingness to open the chat log, but then decided against it. Instead, he re-opened his husktop and began surfing the Trollweb.

There were rumors going around in the news about a rebel group, but in Karkat's opinion, it was all total bullshit. Even if anyone was stupid enough to defy the Empress, they would be hunted down and culled immediately, along with everyone they had ever known.

Trawling through the dregs of the internet, Karkat wound up in a number of very sketchy sites. The sun was strong, and it leaked around the curtains, but he didn't care.

One particular website caught his eye. He'd stumbled upon it by clicking a series of links, travelling from an article about recent revenant sightings to a log of well-known troll adults to a small forum that was known for its crackpot theories.

The site was plain black text on a light grey background, with minimalistic ornamentation and design. The top banner simply read 'The True History Of Alternian Rebellion.' If Karkat had been fully awake and coherent at the moment, he would have clicked away rapidly. Anything with a title like that was either a plant by the government or proof of treason should anyone in the higher castes find out about his reading it. But Karkat was neither fully awake nor coherent, so he continued to read.

_In modern times, trollian history is kept by the seadwellers. They are the highest caste, and so this should be natural—but they tend to leave out bits of the past; bits that are crucially important. _

_One of these bits is the story of the Stranger. _

_Stranger was a troll with a dream and a vision. She was hatched in a time when adult trolls still resided on Alternia, but unlike most of her age, she had no lusus to her name. Instead, she was found by another troll. _

_The jade-blooded troll was a mere sweep and a half old, having wandered away from his Mother Grub lusus into the breeding caverns. When he stumbled upon the grub that was to become the Stranger, he was enraptured. He knew that she was different, and he took her into his arms, bringing her to the care of his own lusus. _

_The Stranger and Defender grew up together, becoming moirails and finally matesprits. Their love was something beyond natural…_

Karkat stopped reading, but continued to stare fixedly at the screen. What the fuck _was_ this shit? It couldn't be legal to post this kind of garbage on the interweb, especially not now that the new Empress was preparing to ascend. She was going out of her way to obliterate any possible opposition; something about justice for the highbloods. It was all fucking nonsense.

Karkat closed the internet window, and prepared to slam his husktop shut. He needed some sleep, but Trollian was pinging again. God forbid he should leave the abyss of the husktop without being harassed by some more assholes.

* * *

Name: KARKAT MARYAM

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: JADE GREEN

* * *

~~gorgeousAntagonist began trolling carcinoGeneticist~~

GA: It Seems That You Will Have To Come Deliver The Pigments Personally Regardless Of Your Personal Wishes

GA: The Empress Is Quite Insistent That You Come To Her Palace

GA: She Wishes To Have The Colors Matched To Her Own Personal Hue

CG: WHAT THE FUCK.

CG: NO.

CG: I AM STAYING IN MY DESERT WHERE THE MOST I HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ARE A COUPLE OF UNDEAD NOOKWHIFFS AND THE HEAT OF THE SUN.

CG: I AM MOST CERTAINLY NOT TRAVELLING TO THE FUCKING OCEAN.

CG: THAT IS NOT A THING THAT I PLAN UPON DOING IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

CG: IN FACT, THAT IS NOT A THING I PLAN UPON DOING EVER. AT ALL. IF THE EMPRESS WANTS TO TALK TO ME THEN SHE CAN FUCKING COME HERE.

GA: Desert Sun Is Most Uncomfortable For Sea Dwellers

GA: You Know That

GA: And Besides, I Do Not Have The Authority To Counteract Her Condescension

GA: You May Message Her Yourself If There Is A Problem

GA: Unless I Am Mistaken You Do Possess Her Chat Handle

CG: NO. TALKING TO THAT NOOKSUCKER IS LIKE WRENCHING MY THINKPAN THROUGH MY EAR CANALS, THEN DISSECTING IT SLOWLY WITH A RUSTY NEEDLE WHILE IT IS STILL ATTACHED TO MY BODY AND CAPABLE OF SENSATION. AFTER THE PAN IS REMOVED AND TAKEN TO PIECES IT WOULD BE FED TO ME BIT BY BIT BEFORE THEY SLICE MY TONGUE OUT. THEN, FINALLY, IT WOULD BE REMOVED WITH SURGICAL TOOLS FROM MY STOMACH AND PLACED BACK INSIDE MY SKULL WHERE IT WOULD PROMPTLY BE MASSAGED WITH SHARP OBJECTS.

CG: THAT IS THE SENSATION OF COMMUNICATING WITH OUR BELOVED EMPRESS.

GA: How…

GA: Eloquent

CG: WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO CONTINUE?

GA: No, Thank You

GA: Although I Am Sure That The Conversation Would Be Delightful

GA: I Must Warn You, Though, That If You Refuse Her Summons The Empress Will Send Subjugglators After You

GA: Have You Seen What Subjugglators Do To The People They Capture?

GA: You Would Rather Be Culled

CG: FINE. TELL YOUR BULGESUCKING EMPRESS THAT I'LL BE THERE AS SOON AS I'M FINISHED WITH WHAT I'M DOING RIGHT NOW.

CG: AND DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP.

CG: THIS IS IMPORTANT BUSINESS, IT PROBABLY WON'T BE ANY TIME SOON.

~~carcinoGeneticist ceased being trolled by gorgeousAntagonist~~

* * *

Kanaya sighed and stared at the chat window. Karkat really was the most belligerent person she knew, and she was certain that his bad attitude would get him in trouble.

In fact, she mused, it already had. The Empress was on his trail, and knowing what she did about Karkat's history, it wasn't likely that he would get out alive. Lady Peixes was a less than empathetic person, and Kanaya was thoroughly worried for Karkat's wellbeing.

Yeah—she was so pale for him it wasn't even funny. The ignorant douchebag probably had no idea, though. All he ever seemed to have time for was his stupid obsession with romantic comedies. His so-called 'important business' was probably just another bad movie.

Kanaya left her respite-block, wandering through her hive towards a window. In her location on Alternia, it was still night, although dawn would arrive fairly soon. The view out her window was impressive: several ostentatious blueblood hives in the distance, and a long stretch of shoreline to the east. Her neighbor Equius was pacing back and forth in his lawnring, looking down at the dead exoskeleton of his monstrous spider lusus. The thing had starved after Equius had refused to feed it.

Kanaya almost felt bad about what she was preparing to do for a moment, but the feeling soon passed like an unpleasant turn of the stomach.

She moved towards her recreation block, removing the tools from her highly fashionable belt. She still had several robots to finish. The foremost project was a commission from the Empress: a servant drone to attend her in place of a slave. It was a particularly difficult challenge, as most of Kanaya's work wasn't well-suited to water.

She was also working on a robotic hand for another one of her neighbors, who had fallen afoul of somebody's lusus in the forest. He was a strong telekinetic despite his position on the hemospectrum, but somehow he had still lost a fight to the massive creature—he claimed it was a winged purrbeast, but that was ridiculous.

Kanaya's robotic designs were famous all over Alternia for their craftsmanship and beauty. She also dabbled in fashion, hence her request from Karkat and the designs for the Empress's cocktail gown that currently sat on a nearby desk, but so few trolls respected that particular art that she needed another way to make money. The robots were particularly lucrative, and she was always filling requests from her neighbor, who could support her on his payments alone. Apparently his favorite recreational activity was beating the shit out of metallic trolls.

When the sun came up, Kanaya laid down her tools and cleaned the grease from her hands. She moved to her husktop in order to send one last message.

~~gorgeousAntagonist began trolling carcinoGeneticist~~

GA: You May Stay In My Hive If You Need Lodging During Your Trip

GA: I Have Plenty Of Vacant Rooms

GA: You Need Only Inform Me And You Will Be Welcomed

~~gorgeousAntagonist ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist~~

That pale crush wasn't going away any time soon, was it? Kanaya frowned and closed her husktop. Stripping to her nightclothes, she sank luxuriously into her sopor.

She dreamed of a city made of gold.

* * *

Name: KANAYA ZAHHAK

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: ROYAL BLUE

* * *

Despite his protests, Karkat knew it would be ridiculously stupid to ignore the Empress's summons. He packed his necessities that day, despite the heat filling the hive through the curtains. Once he'd thrown together everything he needed, he slept for a precious few hours.

His was a thick, dreamless sleep, and he awoke before sunset with a nasty feeling in his gut. Grabbing his pack, he descended the stairs of his hive to say goodbye to his lusus. The mother grub merely smiled knowingly.

It was only when he stood at the stop of the door, looking out at the desert, that he realized he had no means of travel whatsoever.

There was no alternative: he had to message Kanaya. He pulled out his grubphone and brought up Trollian, knowing too well that he was about to be on the receiving end of massive loads of stupidity.

~~carcinoGeneticist began trolling gorgeousAntagonist~~

CG: I HATE TO SAY THIS, BUT…

CG: I NEED A RIDE TO THE PALACE IF YOU WANT ME TO GO ANYWHERE.

CG: I'M KIND OF STUCK.

GA: I Will Come To Your Hive Shortly

GA: Do Not Worry, I Planned For This

CG: OF COURSE YOU DID.

~~carcinoGeneticist ceased trolling gorgeousAntagonist~~

Sometime around midnight, a grubmobile pulled up in front of Karkat's hive. The window rolled down to reveal another troll.

Kanaya was fairly attractive, as trolls went, wearing lipstick the color of her blood and a pair of dark blue sunglasses. Her horns were much longer than Karkat's, much to his chagrin, and though one of them was cracked they were clearly more impressive than the jade-blood's ever would be.

Flushing madly, Karkat stepped into the grubmobile. The ride to the coast was excruciatingly long and mostly quiet, with a couple attempts on Kanaya's part to break the silence. Karkat simply sat stubbornly, a frown fixed upon his face. It was all too obvious that he wanted to be anywhere but where he was at the moment.

When they finally arrived at Kanaya's hive, he fled the grubmobile before it even slowed to a stop. The horizon was brightening in the east, and they hurried inside. Karkat set himself up in an empty, sparsely-furnished respite-block.

He desperately wished that he had someone to troll other than Kanaya. Gamzee was too annoying and vague, and Karkat didn't feel like dealing with the drug-addled troll's antics. Feferi was cryptic and had an unhealthy obsession with the apocalypse and the number two, which was shared by Sollux. That pretty much summed up everyone Karkat knew.

When the time came to meet the Empress, Karkat was actually relieved. He had deliberately avoided Kanaya throughout his stay in her hive, coming down only to eat. The Empress, however belligerent she was, would be a welcome relief. Something about Kanaya simply wigged Karkat out.

On the beach that night, a strange vehicle was waiting. It almost resembled a grubmobile, but it was incased in a massive plastic bubble and it appeared to have flippers. Kanaya entered and gestured for Karkat to follow.

"This will take us to the Empress," she said simply. Karkat grunted.

The vehicle, which turned out to be called a grub sub, took them under the ocean and past multiple ridiculously enormous and ornate hives. Once or twice, a seadweller passed by and curled a lip at the land dwellers' vehicle, but for the most part they were alone. Once again, Karkat ignored Kanaya. He was too busy hoping and praying that the grub sub wouldn't sink or rupture.

Finally, they surfaced. The top of an elaborate hive pierced the waves, with a fuchsia flag flapping in the breeze above it. So this was the Empress's palace, Karkat thought. It was even worse than he'd imagined it to be.

Kanaya led Karkat out of the grub sub and into the building. How she knew where to go, Karkat could only guess, because the place was a labyrinth of fuchsia and gold. The Empress certainly liked her treasure, that much was obvious.

"Welcome to the throne room," Kanaya finally announced, leading Karkat into a room that was almost completely full of shadow.

If he hadn't known better, he would have sworn that the two of them were alone in the massive hall, whose ceiling was out of view and whose walls were draped with royal fuchsia banners. The Empress's sign was omnipresent, worked into the sweeping arches of the walls and the sharp angles of the tiling.

"Karkat Maryam. It's a pleasure." The voice came from the shadowed end of the hall, echoing weirdly around the chamber. The speaker sounded as though she was only whispering, but the shape of the hall bounced the words everywhere until she could have been shouting.

"My Empress," he intoned, dropping to his knees as was custom. He wasn't stupid enough to mouth off directly to the Condescension's face. That would be suicide.

"I have delivered him as promised," declared Kanaya. Her royal blue dress sparkled in the light of the single torch in the corner of the throne room. Karkat had a very uneasy feeling about the whole affair that was only strengthened by the fact that he couldn't see his Empress's face.

"You have done well. Now fetch me the others. You are dismissed," replied the Empress smoothly. Her quiet voice, amplified by the hall, was more intimidating than a shout ever could be.

"Majesty? I was told that I was here to help tailor a dress?" Karkat said, his sentences turning into questions. "I will need to see you in order to do that." To Karkat's alarm, the disembodied voice of the Empress only laughed.

"I'm afraid that wasn't entirely true," she smirked. "You see, my _dear_…you possess a certain quality about you that poses a threat to my rule. An _alarming_ threat." The Empress stretched her words out, speaking to Karkat the way she would to a grub. "I'm afraid you must be exterminated."

"What?" blurted Karkat. "But I—no way—" The Empress laughed louder, the sound of her cackles bouncing all over the stone room from every direction.

"Ampora," she called. "Obliterate him." Footsteps echoed from the shadows. Karkat got to his feet, reaching for the sickles that he always carried, but they simply weren't there.

He'd left them at his hive. _Fuck._ Of all days to forget his weapons, it had to be today. He backed up against the cold stone wall, the smell of salt water stinging his nostrils. He may not be armed, but he wouldn't go down without a fight.

His hearing, made hypersensitive by the darkness and his fear, picked up a quiet sound that he recognized all too well from his time spent at Kanaya's—moving metal. Well-oiled joints were softly shifting as the mysterious aggressor moved closer and closer towards Karkat. A low chuckle bounced around the room.

A silhouette appeared in the torchlight. Karkat processed fins, polished metal, and a pair of long horns before he felt something pierce his chest.

He looked down slowly, stiffly, as heat burst through his body, sending him crumpling to his knees. The lance had passed through his entire body, and jade-green blood sprayed all over the floor.

"Do clean up the mess, Ampora," the Empress commanded as Karkat's vision flickered.

His last thought was that his blood looked remarkably like grub sauce.

* * *

**A/N: Ahaha. Ahahahahahahaha. AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA! *continues laughing maniacally***

**Yay, this chapter was actually a decent length! I think it's about equal in word length to the sum of all three before it...and the plot appears. I didn't want to put Karkat's death in a different chapter later because I felt like people would forget about his conversations with Kanaya. And yes, Karkat is really dead. Sorry :) I had to. Oh, and just for reference, the Trollweb is the troll internet. I know I swapped terms a lot there, but I couldn't remember if there was a canon term or not and the Internet is clearly a human thing. **

**What is this, two updates in two days? I know I said that I'd be really slow in the last chapter, but bluh bluh whatever. Your two-week pause will be after this chapter. I had a really strong spark for this update and finished it late last night. And I actually did cackle maniacally while I wrote that ending...oh, my bloodswapped seadwellers. I love you so. **

**The next chapter will officially introduce Eridan and Terezi, as I promised. And because I'm an evil author, there will be no mention of Karkat's unfortunate demise until AT LEAST chapter eight. Knowing this fic, Vriska will eat Chapter Eight because she's Vriska. So maybe not. **

**BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! Being (slightly) evil is fun!**


	5. Chapter 5

~~completelyAvantgarde began trolling geneticallyCompetent~~

CA: you ready

GC: H3LL Y3S.

~~completelyAvantgarde ceased trolling geneticallyCompetent~~

* * *

Eridan stepped out of the woods into the early evening air, wincing slightly as the sting of the setting sun singed his skin. He double-checked the rifle strapped across his back and adjusted his scarf impatiently, waiting for Terezi.

It was still very hot outside, and underneath his scarf and cape Eridan was sweating heavily. The stupid FLARP campaign mandated that they begin in the light of the sun, though, so that was what he'd done. The gaming FLARPstractions remained floating around his head until a familiar voice rang through the clearing.

"So Dualscar rides again," Eridan's FLARP partner declared as she saw his garb. He grinned wickedly and turned to face Terezi as she stepped out from the trees, her dragon hood raised.

"As do you, Justsoul," he replied, and Terezi grinned. Beneath her hood, there was colorful blood painted like a mask in place of her usual glasses, and her olive-tinged eyes were narrowed viciously.

"Let's go cull some highbloods." Eridan nodded and the duo moved stealthily off in search of their first objective.

They were to duel a team of seadwellers tonight, and Eridan couldn't wait for the bloodshed. Stupid fucking seadwellers—one day, they'd see. One day, he'd avenge his ancestor, as was written in fate. One day, he would kill every seadweller on the face of Alternia. Nothing less could quench his thirst for blood—nothing whatsoever.

The tang of salt was strong on the air as they entered the grassy plains, keeping a sharp lookout for other FLARP teams that might be out tonight. Eridan had heard rumors of a rogue group who disregarded the rules and simply killed whoever they found. He didn't want to be on the receiving end of that kind of fate.

"So where are we meeting these glubbers again?" Terezi hissed.

"The cliffs; it's the same place wwhere wwe fought that one cerulean and his friend, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. That asshole. Right."

Ahead, there was a rustle in the bushes and a creaking of metal. Eridan and Terezi tensed simultaneously, Eridan drawing Ahab's Crosshairs from his strife specibus. The gun had been one of his best FLARP discoveries yet—he'd nicked it off of some stupid-looking fish boy with no respect for weaponry. There had been a fight on land that ended when Eridan fired the Crosshairs, blasting the loser dead on and knocking what was left of him over a cliff. Eridan felt no shame whatsoever.

_creak…creak…creak…_

Something metallic was moving up ahead, slowly and methodically crushing the bushes and grass. Terezi's eyes were darting back and forth as she drew her dual rapiers. Bladekind was the best specibus.

Then, as suddenly as the sound began, it stopped. Frozen, Eridan and Terezi shared a long, slow look. Terezi crept slowly forward, her weapons being better suited for close combat. For an agonizing moment, everything was silent.

_click…click…click…_

The sound was similar to gears turning, a quiet and smooth brush of polished metal against metal. It was a quiet scraping, barely audible over the wind in the grass, but it was there. Terezi clenched her fists around her dual blades. She was sweating in the early heat of the evening, and the dried blood around her eyes was dripping down her face like subjugglator paint.

The sound stopped. No one moved. For what felt like an eternity, Eridan and Terezi remained agonizingly still as they waited for the noise to come again.

Finally, Terezi stood.

"Just our imaginations?" she suggested, her voice shaking a little. Eridan nodded, and they stretched before continuing on their way.

As they walked, they conversed casually. They had to come up with an alibi for being so late to see their opponents; if it seemed that the duo had been afraid they would start off on the wrong foot. It was very important to Eridan that they did it all in a certain way. Once or twice, other FLARP teams approached, but Eridan fired a few shots from the Crosshairs, successfully deterring any potential unwanted rivals.

They arrived at the seashore as the pink moon came over the horizon. They stood in the loose sand at the peak of a dune, Terezi keeping watch while Eridan stared intently at the ocean.

A pair of trolls rose up from the strangely calm sea gracefully, water dripping from their horns and hair. The leader was a short, slender female with horns that curved upwards before jutting sharply down. Her horns were covered in beads and jewelry to an absurd extent, and she herself was draped in violet spiderwebs. Her partner wasn't nearly as enthusiastic in his clothing—he was actually wearing something practical.

"Team Thunder?" Eridan asked, his eyes never leaving those of the lead seadweller.

"Naturally," she hissed in response. "The name is Wanderer—remember it if you survive. This is Undreade. And you two filthbloods are Team Oblivion?" Eridan tensed up, clutching Ahab's Crosshairs and curling his lip.

"_Naturally,_" he mocked, imitating the violet's intonation. She sneered at him before flicking at a bead on her left horn.

"You have a lot of nerve for a lowblood. Wanna bet you can't back it up?"

"Sorry, _princess,_ but I hawe a kismesis," Eridan fired back. He was making shit up, of course—he didn't have a single quadrant filled. But he had zero interest in hating someone with _fins._

"Let's get this show on the road, Dualscar," Terezi snapped from the top of the dune. She had reapplied her mask using the blood of an animal they'd caught on the way, and she looked thoroughly menacing.

Without any warning, the Wanderer leapt at them. Eridan drew the Crosshairs, but Wanderer was too close and he couldn't fire the gun without taking flack himself. Instead, he smashed her over the head with it. She darted out of the way, but the barrel of the Crosshairs smacked firmly into one of her horns. A few sparkling beads sprayed across the ground.

Wanderer dove back, rubbing the base of her horn. She drew a long S-shaped blade from her strife specibus and tossed it from hand to hand before diving at Eridan's legs in an attempt to take out his feet.

He dodged and swung at her with the Crosshairs again, but missed. She cackled.

"You're not very good at this, are you?"

"I told you, fishface. Quit flirting, you're not wworth my time," Eridan grunted, pulling out of her reach and placing her in the sights of his weapon. The blood drained from her face, just as Eridan pulled the trigger.

A blast of white energy blew through Wanderer, leaving her incinerated remains behind with a gaping hole in her gut that quickly filled with purple blood. Her FLARP partner deserted Terezi to charge at Eridan, enraged.

"THAT WAS MY _MOIRAIL, _YOU DOUCHEBAG!" Eridan jumped away from the reach of the other troll, Undreade, who carried a long, sharp spear.

He kept chasing after Eridan, not allowing the teal-blood one second of rest. Eridan couldn't keep the Crosshairs steady enough to get a shot off, and he took a painful cut to the right shoulder. His grip on the Crosshairs slipped, but Terezi was there and she jumped Undreade from behind.

The second seadweller fell, Terezi's twin rapiers through his heart.

"Thanks," Eridan panted, clutching his wounded shoulder tightly to stop the bleeding. It would definitely heal, but the spear had hit muscle and possibly some bone. It was bleeding pretty badly.

Eridan pulled his scarf from around his neck and tied it around the injury before retrieving one of his many auxiliary scarves from his sylladex.

"Really?" Terezi raised an eyebrow.

"I must remain at the peak of fashion," Eridan insisted.

"Nobody gives a fuck about fashion, you idiot."

"I do," he protested, but Terezi ignored him.

"So we killed these assholes a little bit early…what next? _I_ say we go look for treasure." The blood was crumbling down Terezi's face again in flakes, and for a moment Eridan imagined her as a subjugglator. The image was terrifying.

"Sounds good to me," Eridan agreed. The duo left the bodies of the seadwellers to bleed out on the ocean shore. Their deaths seemed to fill something in Eridan, some kind of primal need for slaughter that he couldn't resist.

Two down. Several thousands more to go. He wouldn't stop until not a single one was left.

* * *

Name: ERIDAN PYROPE

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: TEAL

* * *

Name: TEREZI LEIJON

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: OLIVE

* * *

Terezi led her FLARP partner towards their next objective, a cave that rested against the seashore. Eridan loved the missions by the ocean, especially the ones that allowed him to cull seadwellers. She generally indulged him, providing that said missions allowed her to amass more treasure.

Terezi knew she lived in a cave, but she still couldn't help filling it with as many shining things as possible. Her lusus needed a proper dragon's hoard, and although she liked to deny it, Terezi was in love with all that shone—especially if it was colorful as well.

"Stop," intoned a voice from behind them. Eridan and Terezi turned together to see a slender purple-blood watching them impassively from the top of another dune. Her silhouette was finless, but in the moonlight Terezi could clearly see the indigo sign on her chest, like a V with curving ends.

Eridan pointed Ahab's Crosshairs at the purple, and her lips turned up in a faint smile. Her face, as the moonlight revealed it, was painted like a skull.

"Eridan Pyrope. Terezi Leijon." The indigo pulled a whip from her strife specibus, snapping it idly in the air. Her curved horns shone in the light.

"Howw do you knoww our names?" Eridan demanded, brandishing the Crosshairs.

"I know things," the subjugglator replied simply as she brushed a strand of curly hair out of her bloodshot eyes. "I have been sent to collect you, by the Empress's orders."

"What does Her Royal Raspberry want from us?" Terezi asked, staring down the subjugglator.

"Yeah, wwe don't wwant nothin to do wwith any _fishface._" The subjugglator smirked, the skeletal smile of her paint widening.

"I am afraid you do not have a choice. Her Condescension is quite insistent."

"And wwhat'll you do if wwe don't wwanna?" Eridan rested his finger on the trigger of the Crosshairs, pointing it threateningly at the subjugglator.

The subjugglator flicked her whip emotionally, pulling the weapon out of Eridan's grip. He sputtered useless protests, and began to leap at the indigo, but he suddenly felt himself chilled to the bones with a shocking, irrational fear.

The highblood's sclera seemed to change from a natural yellow to bloodshot purple-and-scarlet. She grinned outright, showing off her serrated teeth.

Eridan curled into a ball as horrorterrors filled his mind and subconscious, connecting to the dark thoughts in the back of every troll's awareness. Black, oily tentacles and blood of every color filled his vision. He saw images of what this troll had done to countless others who had opposed her. He saw images of trolls mutilated, trolls choked to death upon their own blood, trolls left hanging by their fingertips from a cliff in the midst of the day.

Then, as suddenly as the fear had come, it vanished.

"Do you continue to doubt me?" the subjugglator asked simply.

"Fuck you," Eridan declared feebly, pulling himself to his feet and adjusting his scarf. "Go drowwn in a bucket." The subjugglator lifted her chin slightly, her grin as wide as ever.

"You have nerve for a lowblood. Please, surrender. You would be quite an asset to the Empire."

"Three words: Hell. Fuckin. No."

"As you wish. Since these are the last words you are likely to hear, though, I wish to introduce myself. My name is Aradia Makara."

"So I'we been honored wwith the epithet of my neww wictim," Eridan hissed. "Wwell, _Lady Makara,_ get ready to face your demise."

Aradia's whip flew towards Eridan's neck and he was only saved by Terezi's rapier snicking off its end. Eridan had been left weaponless when Aradia stole the Crosshairs, his only specibus weapon. He would have to get creative, it seemed.

"Hey Ter, gimme one of your swwords," he murmured in her ear as she lunged towards Aradia. Terezi missed, tumbling down onto the other side of the dune, but Aradia also lost her footing to slide down the hill.

Terezi dashed over the dune, her feet searching for purchase in the loose sand. She tossed Eridan a small dagger and he managed to temporarily change his specialization before Aradia was suddenly there once again.

She was truly terrifying, her eyes blazing red and purple and her horns silhouetted on the pink moon. She looked like an angel. Eridan hoped that he was similarly threatening.

But before he could move, the terror struck once again. Aradia's face was a skull, her eyes were lasers, she was an angel sent down to destroy him. She seemed to spark with purple energy as the chucklevoodoos grew stronger, and Eridan shuddered involuntarily.

Just then, Terezi launched herself over the dune and tackled Aradia from behind. Aradia lost hold of the chucklevoodoo and Eridan snapped out of her spell, brandishing his borrowed dagger.

Aradia gave up on the whip and wrapped strong fingers around Terezi's throat, leaving olive bruises. Terezi choked, gasping for air, and she managed to push herself down the side of the dune towards Eridan, Aradia still holding tight.

Eridan sank his dagger into the nearest part of Aradia he could find, which happened to be her upper thigh. She yelled and released Terezi, who jumped back and tried to draw her rapier only to find that Aradia had wrestled it out of her hand.

Eridan took advantage of Aradia's distraction to snatch Ahab's Crosshairs back out of her sylladex, and he returned it to his own.

Dripping dark purple blood from the open wound, Aradia advanced upon Eridan and Terezi. Her brilliant white makeup was smeared, making it almost more terrifying. Terezi's fingernails had scraped her bare upper shoulders and face, leaving beads of blood that slipped down Aradia's waxy paint.

Aradia looked up.

"Oh, good. Ampora, you're here." Eridan whirled around, but saw nothing. There was a strange sound in the air, almost like the brush of metal parts together, like coins clinking as they dropped into a jar or a dagger leaving its sheath.

"What's taken you so long? You're normally much faster when killing," someone new declared nonchalantly from Eridan's left. He turned again, but no one was there.

Aradia smirked.

"I could never compete with you."

_Clink…clink…clink…_

Eridan tried to trace the sound, but no matter how he turned he couldn't find the source anywhere.

"Wwho's there?" he demanded, eyes flashing. Aradia laughed, but she still sounded emotionless, her mirth robotic and dictated.

"Hello, Dualscar. Long time, no see." Eridan finished his turn to see the face of someone he had thought he killed sweeps ago.

"Tavros Ampora. I return the sentiment." Tavros twirled his lance. His metal legs clinked as he shifted his position to stare directly at Eridan. He had a single robotic eye that glowed the same violet as his blood color, and his left facial fin was twisted and mutilated. The rest of his face shone with white burn scars that spiderwebbed across his forehead and cheeks.

"I'll make this simple," Tavros continued, still playing with the deadly-sharp lance. It was stained with some hapless troll's jade-green blood. "You have something that belongs to me. I want it back."

"You wwish." Eridan pointed the Crosshairs at the troll he thought he killed with that same gun sweeps previously. Tavros raised his lance in response.

"Bring it on, then, Pyrope. You'll find that I'm not the same fighter I was four sweeps ago." So it had been that long. Eridan had nearly forgotten.

Without warning, Eridan ducked out of Tavros's stabbing range to fire off a blast from the Crosshairs. He slipped in the sand and tripped, though, so his shot went off in a random direction.

"You're screwwed," Eridan hollered.

"You couldn't kill me four sweeps ago and you can't kill me now!" Tavros hollered back. "You're a weakling, a lowblooded weakling! I know about your ancestor, I know who he was, and it was my ancestor that culled him like he was nothing but a wriggler! Descendants finish their ancestors' work, you know," Tavros taunted.

"I'm finishing his wwork! I'm finishing his wwork by destroying the ones who betrayed and destroyed him and don't you forget it!" Tavros only laughed mockingly, and something in Eridan seemed to disengage.

He would later say that he lost control, or that he was so overwhelmed by platonic hate that he merely forgot what happened, but the truth was that his mind was destroyed that night. It would never truly return to normal.

He let out an introllian screech and rushed Tavros blindly, forgetting all inhibitions. He plowed right through Aradia, throwing her across the dune, and wrapped his hands around the violet-blood's throat. Tavros's right fin, the whole one, was crushed in Eridan's unrelenting grip, and a tear of pain involuntarily escaped his eye.

Laughing maniacally, Eridan punched Tavros over and over again, beating the fish freak's face to a bloody pulp. Tavros stood up, shoving Eridan away, and stabbed Eridan through the shoulder with his lance. Eridan didn't even flinch, he just continued to laugh insanely, tottering back and forth dizzily from blood loss.

"Eridan, stop, you'll kill yourself!" Terezi shouted, but he didn't hear her. "ERIDAN!"

"Well, well, weeeeeeeell, what do we have here?" interjected a new voice. Aradia appeared over the dune, smiling.

"My Empress," Aradia intoned. Terezi held her second rapier tightly in her right hand, Aradia having stolen the first. She was bleeding olive from a cut on her cheek, and her eyes were murderous.

"Ooooooooh, more descendants. Good job, Makara. And if it isn't the _invincible_ descendant of the Justsoul herself. Leijon, isn't it?"

Terezi curled her lip at the figure who approached over the dune. The Empress's signature mismatched horns shone, and her glasses reflected sharp moonlight.

"It's interesting, meeting you in real life. Somehow I expected it to happen under far more auspicious circumstances," Terezi hissed.

"Remember my face later, won't you?" the Empress smirked.

She flipped a switch on the device she'd hauled over the dune, and it filled the space with brilliant, blinding light.

All Terezi saw was red, red expanding and filling her vision until there was nothing else, and suddenly the world was dark.

Eridan was facing the other way when the light turned on, and it shook him from his trance-like state. He clutched his shoulder, wincing in pain when it moved. The light was brilliant and searing, and for a moment he wondered if the sun had come back up. But it turned off as soon as it had turned on, and he tottered back around to face the Empress.

"You have a choice, Pyrope. You can join us, or you can be destroyed like your friend here," declared the Empress, gesturing towards Terezi, who was writhing in pain on the sand, her face brutally burned and her eyes welling with olive tears.

"I…I…"

"Weeeeeeeell? I don't have all day." Eridan's eyes flicked around, from the Empress and her light machine, to Aradia calmly standing and bleeding on the dune, to Tavros, who was watching Eridan with a distinctly hateful face, to Terezi crying and lying defeated on the ground, and he made his decision.

"I surrend—"

Just as Eridan began saying the hateful words, a swarm of animals charged out of the sea and across the land to stampede the three highbloods into the ground.

"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!" someone shouted by way of a battle cry, and a brownblooded troll came out of nowhere to land in front of Eridan.

"Who—what—"

"Nepsis said there were royals roamin, and I wasn't gonna motherfuckin leave a brother to fight 'em all alone." The strange troll smiled proudly at Eridan, as though he was a wriggler expecting a prize. His messy hair was full of wingbeast poop, probably from his summoned creatures, and he smelled horrible.

"Wwho the fuck are you?"

"Gamzee motherfuckin Nitram, motherfucka. You?"

"Eridan Pyrope," he replied, too stunned to do anything else. "Oh—and that's Terezi. She needs help." The brownblood stared blankly at Eridan's FLARP partner before summoning an antlerbeast to carry her away. The highbloods had vanished, presumably back to wherever they came from.

"Honk," the brownblood declared by way of a response. Eridan's head was spinning from blood loss, and he staggered. Gamzee caught him and placed him onto the back of a wingbeast lusus. It carried the two into the forest where Eridan had started out the night.

"Um…wwhere are wwe going?"

"You can't go back to your hive. That's where they'll motherfuckin look for a brother, you know? We're gonna motherfuckin get your stuff then you're comin with me. Honk," Gamzee answered.

"Oh."

Elsewhere, on the back of a hijacked antlerbeast lusus, Terezi Leijon was accessing her husktop.

* * *

~~geneticallyCompetent began trolling arachnidsGoddess~~

GC: VR1S4K4 1 4M GP1NG TO K414LL YOU...

GC: YOU W3NY B4CK ON OU3 4GR33MWNT. YOU KWNO WJ4T TH4BV M34NS...

AG: Ooooooooh, I'm soooooooo scared. You are clearly the most incredi8ly intimid8ing person I know. Cleeeeeeeearly.

GC: C4R3 TO 3XPL41N WHY TH3 FUCK YOU BL1ND3D M3?

AG: Well, you sure recovered quickly. I can't w8 to hear your indignant pleas for help.

AG: 'Help me, Vriska, I'm too stupid and low8looded to t8ke care of myself!'

AG: 'Help me, Vriska, I can't see shit!'

GC: SHUT UP.

AG: Oh noooooooo, the low8lood is playing the threat g8me!

AG: I'm soooooooo intimid8ed.

GC: YOU R34LLY SHOULD S4V3 TH3 K1LL1NG FOR TH3 G4M3.

AG: Ooooooooh, the mysterious gaaaaaaaame.

AG: Does this g8me of yours even exist?

GC: SP1D3RB1TCH YOU DON'T 3V3N KNOW WH4T YOUR3 T4LK1NG 4BOUT.

~~geneticallyCompetent ceased trolling arachnidsGuardian~~

* * *

Perfect, Terezi thought. A touch of fake anger and deliberately misspelled words, and Vriska would fall right into the trap. Terezi wrapped her hands over her burning eyes, still brimming with painful tears, but knew that she was lucky. After all, her lusus had taught her to smell and taste despite the lack of need, and all she had to do was get used to it. Good thing she hadn't refused.

Terezi really hadn't expected to lose her eyesight, but a TOT4L B4D4SS like her wouldn't be stopped by something that small.

Now, then. On to bigger, better plans…

* * *

~~geneticallyCompetent began trolling caringClarity~~

GC: H3Y F3F3R1.

GC: ST4G3 ON3 1S COMPL3T3.

~~geneticallyCompetent ceased trolling caringClarity~~

* * *

**A/N: Hey everybody! Sorry for the longer-than-expected wait. As I said last chapter, I was at camp sans computer, and then after that my internet started doing stupid things. Hopefully this nice long chapter makes up for it. Seems I've been keeping up nicely with the trend of getting longer...and longer...and longer. **

**In other notes, Tavros! WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME SHIP YOU BLACK WITH ERIDAN. THIS IS WRONG. I just love writing Tavros as a fearless badass, though, because it's so backwards and also awesome. I firmly believe that his canonical personification could make him incredibly epically more-so-than-Vriska badass, if he just got some backbone.**

**This chapter was so much fun to write. I know I'm probably terrible at battle scenes (and dialogue, and characterization, and virtually everything else but spelling/grammar) but I still love it. And we start to get a vision of the bigger picture here. Next chapter we may or may not get an explanation for why the heck Vriska is targeting the lowbloods (besides pure sadism). It depends on where the story takes me; my outline is very loosely designed. I'm trying to create suspense but I'm a terrible secret-keeper :I**

**I have no clue when the next chapter will be up. It might be tomorrow or it might not be for another three weeks. I have a family vacation coming up where I will be able to type but I won't have internet access, and then after that I'm going to Europe (XD). Beware of crack ships in the future; bloodswaps that I write tend to be full of them. **

**As always, reviews are extremely welcome! I don't even care if your review is three words long and consists of "this is okay." Seriously, the reviews make me very very happy and I know some of my writing needs improvement. **

**OH! durrrr this never ends but. I would really like to set up some kind of blog via Tumblr to post pictures I've drawn of various characters and stuff, or answer questions from people, but I have NO FREAKING CLUE how to use Tumblr. If anyone could help me out here, I would be very very grateful. Finally, I think that's all!**


	6. Chapter 6

~~tantalizedCreation began trolling arsenicCullbait~~

TC: SuP kItTySiS?

AC: :(( did you find anypawdy?

TC: I sUrE mOtHeRfUcKiN dId.

TC: ThEm RoYaLs WaS aLl Up AnD aTtAcKiNg A cOuPlE mIdBlOoDeD bRoThErS aNd SiStErS sO i MoThErFuCkIn Up AnD sAvEd ThEm

AC: :33 did the royals s33 you?

TC: NoPe

TC: AlL ThEy sAw aNd hEaRd wAs mY MoThErFuCkIn wAr cRy aNd mY MoThErFuCkIn aNiMaLs

TC: I Up aNd sWePt oUt lIkE A MoThErFuCkIn mIrAcLe

AC: :33 who are the midbloods you have with you? are they furiendly to the clawse? i can't allow people in who might betray us.

TC: I'Ll uP AnD MoThErFuCkIn aSk tHeM

TC: JuSt a sEc

~~tantalizedCreation ceased trolling arsenicCullbait~~

* * *

Gamzee poked Eridan in the unhurt shoulder.

"Wwhat the fuck do you wwant?" the injured troll replied grumpily. "Wwhy don't you go back to your stupid husktop? And wwhen are we going to get to my hiwe anywways, this is taking wway longer than it should."

"I have a motherfuckin important question to ask you. What do you think about highbloods?" Gamzee asked, the whimsy in his voice replaced briefly by seriousness. Suddenly, Ahab's Crosshairs came out of nowhere to make Gamzee crosseyed as Eridan leveled it in his face.

"Wwe wwere just fightin 'em, wwhat d'you _think_ I think about highbloods?"

"Honk," Gamzee replied weakly.

"Seadwwellers murdered my ancestor and they just tried to murder me. Do you think I wwould reply to that wwith appreciation? I don't care about the indigos and the blue bloods, but the seadwwellers have to _die._ All of them." Eridan's voice was filled with venom.

"I think you just motherfuckin went and passed the test," Gamzee declared, shoving the Crosshairs away from his face. "What about motherfuckin Teresister over there? She feel the same?"

"She doesn't wwant to kill them all. She just wwants equality," Eridan answered, the tone in his voice making it clear that he disagreed.

Gamzee didn't respond, just returned to the husktop as Eridan guided their transportation towards his hive.

* * *

~~tantalizedCreation began trolling arsenicCullbait~~

TC: ThEy'Re sAfE

AC: :33 good. get their things and take them back to base, you know to do that right?

AC: :33 the highbloods will be looking fur them meow, and they'll be culled now that they've b33n s33n with you.

TC: I KnOw

TC: It'S AlL TaKeN CaRe oF, wE'rE GeTtInG ThEiR ThInGs rIgHt nOw.

AC: :33 good work gamz33!

AC: :33 I'll be waiting fur you when you get back.

~~tantalizedCreation ceased trolling arsenicCullbait~~

* * *

Vriska was in a very bad mood, and it showed.

"You idiot!" she snapped suddenly at Tavros. "You were supposed to help _capture_ them, not make them platonically hate you even more! And they would've been good minions, too. I need more land dweller minions."

"I…um…uh…"

"Shut up."

"I am fairly sure…that they wouldn't have…well, cooperated." Tavros hesitated, trying to get his words right. "Pyrope hates seadwellers, he wouldn't have even responded to reason. And that other troll seemed to share his opinion." Vriska rolled her eyes.

"Hence the word _capture_. Capturing someone doesn't require _consent,_ you idiot!"

"Uh…um…uh…" Tavros stuttered.

"Shut uuuuuuuup," Vriska moaned. "Look, I'm giving you a new mission, and it's real nice and easy so a brainless idiot like you can't mess it up. I want you to go talk to Equius and get him to use his mind powers on Terezi."

"Why Terezi? And…what do you want him to do?"

"Oh, forget it. I'll just troll the sweaty idiot and make him sweat even harder into his disgusting towels full of dried-up sweat." Tavros had no way to respond to that, so he focused on a link in his mechanical left foot and tried to avoid eye contact with the irate Empress.

Vriska's husktop pinged as soon as she opened it.

* * *

~~gorgeousAntagonist began trolling arachnidsGoddess~~

GA: Vriska?

GA: Vriska Are You There

GA: Please Tell Me You Did Not Lose Your Husktop Again

AG: whaaaaaaaat?

AG: I was 8usy, jegus!

GA: I Merely Wished To Speak To You, Seeing As You Are My Matesprit And We Did Not Get Much Chance To Talk The Other Night

GA: How Have You Been

AG: Is that seriously what you 8othered me for?

AG: Reeeeeeeeally, Kanaya?

GA: I Presume You Have Other Things To Do Then

GA: Other Irons In The Fire As You Might Say

AG: All the irons, Kanaya.

AG: Aaaaaaaallllllll of them.

~~arachnidsGoddess ceased being trolled by gorgeousAntagonist~~

* * *

~~arachnidsGoddess began trolling centaursTesticle~~

AG: Eeeeeeeequiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuussssssss

CT: D- Empress

CT: D- What is your command

AG: Do you know a certain Terezi L8ijon?

CT: D- I do not believe so

AG: Do you know any8ody who does?

CT: D- My moirail may be of acquaintance with this person

CT: D- I do not know

AG: Ooooooooh, you have a moirail?

AG: Do tell 3::::)

CT: D- It is nothing

CT: D- The topic…

CT: D- Ah…

CT: D- It is making me

CT: D-

CT: D-

CT: D- Sweat.

AG: Oh gog that's disgusting, I soooooooo did not need to know that.

AG: Just go chat with your stupid moirail and get familiar with Terezi L8ijon.

AG: She's going to be your next target.

CT: D- Yes your Majesty

~~arachnidsGoddess ceased trolling centaursTesticle~~

* * *

Vriska turned away from the husktop.

"Equius is making contact with his moirail—I want that investigated, Ampora, since when does Serket have a moirail?—and he's going to find Terezi for me." A knock sounded sharply on the above-water throne room door. "Oh, and let Aradia in. I need to speak with her. You're dismissed." Tavros swam out of the room, opening the door for Aradia Makara on his way.

Aradia gracefully entered the throne room, perching delicately at the edge of the above-water platform. Vriska drained the water from the room with the press of a button, rising upwards until she was slightly elevated above Aradia.

"Have you located the rebels yet?" Vriska asked quietly.

"No, Milady, but not for lack of trying, and the rest of the descendants could be anywhere." Aradia's strangely hollow voice echoed through the large, sweeping room.

Vriska drummed her nails on the arm of her throne.

"What about the lead you got the other night? You told me you saw someone who you thought was their leader, that hemanonymous girl, have you been investigating the place where she disappeared?"

"Yes, Milady. So far, the search has turned up nothing."

"And no descendants either? This is so ridiculous that it's hard to even believe. I _know_ they're alive, so where are they?"

"Alternia is a large planet. We have not finished searching it yet. Those grubs could have turned up here or the other side of the globe. It was only chance that Kanaya knew the jade-blood." Vriska groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Just leave. Get out of my sight, and don't come back until you find either the rebels or another descendant. _Got it?_"

"Yes, Milady." Aradia departed, and Vriska sank down in her throne. Her eyes flicked around the large, empty throne room, with her sign carved into every wall and worked into the sweeping double arch of the room.

Vriska's hunters were growing complacent, and Vriska herself was growing tired of relying on idiotic henchmen. She had an empire to run and a game to play, and she wasn't going to let either one slip out of her grasp.

* * *

Name: VRISKA PEIXES

Age: 8 SWEEPS

Blood Color: FUCHSIA

* * *

~~centaursTesticle began trolling arsenicCatnip~~

CT: D- Nepeta

CT: D- Nepeta, I order you to answer

CT: D- Nepeta

AC: :33 hi equihiss

AC: :33 i'm a little busy right meow, can we cat later?

CT: D- W001d you know a troll named 'Terezi Leijon'?

CT: D- It is very important

AC: :33 why?

CT: D- No reason

AC: :33 I don't think I do

AC: :33 leijon is an olive caste name, isn't it?

AC: :33 how come you're looking fur an olive blood?

CT: D-

CT: D-

AC: :33 tell me

CT: D- This is making me

CT: D- Sweat

AC: :33 ewwwww

CT: D- Just answer the question.

AC: :33 I already did! no, I don't think I know anyone named terezi

AC: :33 listen, I'm r33ly busy right now

AC: :33 I'll cat you later

~~arsenicCatnip ceased being trolled by centaursTesticle~~

CT: D- Fiddlesticks

~~centaursTesticle ceased trolling arsenicCatnip~~

* * *

"Nepeta? Nepsis, are you there?" Gamzee's voice called through the system of caves in the Cult hives. Nepeta looked up from her husktop.

"In here, Gamzee," she called back.

She sighed; her moirail really had the worst sense of timing. She'd forgiven him for his threat earlier that week, but she still refused to go see him in person. Terezi Leijon…no, she hadn't ever heard of someone called Terezi Leijon. Why was Equius looking for this Terezi person?

Gamzee entered the room.

"Wanna meet our new motherfuckin recruits?"

"Sure," Nepeta replied instantly—anything to stop her thinking about her moirallegiance. She followed Gamzee into one of the Cult's smaller reception halls, in which two injured trolls were waiting. Nepeta's eyes fell first on the teal-blood, a confident-looking troll with lightning bolt horns and enormous glasses. He was dressed in a FLARP outfit, with an extravagant cape the color of his blood and a turquoise scarf. Two more scarves were tied around his injured shoulder and arm to form a makeshift sling—just how many scarves does this guy have, anyways? His symbol was vaguely familiar to Nepeta, although she couldn't place why.

Next to the teal-blood was a female troll wearing an olive sign. Around her eyes, old dried blood was flaking away from where it had obviously been painted on. She was also dressed in FLARP clothes, although her costume was much more subtle than her partner's. But what stood out the most to Nepeta was that the female troll's eyes weren't normal troll eyes—gold sclera with pigmented irises. They were completely filled in with scarlet, almost like…that was it. This troll was light-blinded, it was obvious. Nepeta had seen cases of blindness before in her followers, most of whom then became dependent on others to help them: basically, cullbait.

"So what are your names?" Nepeta asked in a friendly manner, smiling at them.

"Eridan Pyrope," declared the teal-blood. He had a very weird accent, almost similar to that of a seadweller. Nepeta decided to ask him about that later.

"Ooooh, you smell good," declared the olive-blood. "Cherries. Candied cherries."

"Um…okay. What's your name?" Nepeta asked again, slightly unsettled. The olive-blood just kept sniffing in her direction, and it was more than a little creepy.

"I'm Terezi Leijon," she declared.

Well, then. That was an unexpected turn of events, Nepeta thought to herself, rolling the information around in her head. She decided to be blunt.

"Terezi, do you know Equius Serket?" she asked, doing the best she could to make eye contact with the blind troll.

"Can't say I've had the pleasure," answered Terezi blithely, "but I've heard the name. Why?" Terezi looked directly into Nepeta's eyes despite her blindness, and the effect was very unsettling.

"He asked me if I knew you," Nepeta answered. No point in not being honest.

"You smell too mutant to be allied with the highbloods. Do you know why this Equius guy was asking for me? Do you know what he's planning?"

"Um…" Nepeta was saved from answering by the timely entrance of Sollux Megido, looking more than a little bit annoyed.

"TZ, you idiot, what are you _doing_ here?" he demanded. "You thaid you were too buthy to vithit when FF and I needed your help, and _now _you arrive?" Sollux was lisping pretty hard, and it was obvious he was annoyed.

"Sollux, I presume?"

"Who the fuck elthe were you eckthpecting?" Sollux demanded irately.

"Shenanigans," Terezi replied mysteriously. "Listen, the game needs to be ready early." Terezi continued talking to Sollux quietly, completely ignoring the presence of Nepeta, Gamzee, and Eridan, all three of whom were very confused.

"Do _you_ know how they know each other?" Nepeta asked Eridan, who shrugged in response before wincing and clutching his shoulder. "Oh, damn, you need to get to the infirmary. Gamzee, take Eridan to the hospital so he can get his shoulder fixed, okay?" Gamzee honked in response and led Eridan away, leaving Nepeta to listen in on Terezi and Sollux's conversation.

"…tho it can't pothibly be ready until necktht week. Tell the Empreth she'll have two wait," Sollux was saying impatiently to Terezi.

"She blinded me over a minor intrapersonal spat. She'd cull you for making her wait, if you weren't needed to finish the programming," Terezi warned. "As is, she'll take it out on me."

"My programth are good but they can't tranthlate and interpret an entire unknown language in three dayth. That'th impothible," Sollux raged, his lisp forcing him to spray spit all over Terezi's face.

"She'll find you."

"She'th been trying thinthe forever, it'th not happening any time thoon. I'm a rebel _and_ a dethendant, and I've avoided her thith long." Terezi hissed at Sollux to be quiet, noticing Nepeta's curious expression.

"What game?" Nepeta asked, deciding that honesty was probably the best option now she'd been spotted spying. Sollux groaned.

"I gueth we have two tell now," he declared, preparing to tell a story.

"Are you sure we can trust her?" Terezi demanded warily.

"She'th fine," Sollux assured her. "Yeah…Nepeta, remember the other day when we were working on hiding thothe documentth over at my hive?"

"Yeah…"

"And FF came in two talk two me. Well, the game ith what we've been working on. It'th a thort of immerthive thimulation-type thing bathed on an old language I found written in thome ruinth. The Empreth ith among thothe I chothe to beta-tetht the game; she heard about it from TZ here and demanded to try. You're part of the group ath well," Sollux explained. "I wath actually thinking I might let Gamthee and that other guy Eridan try two, thinthe they're here."

"Sounds fun!" Sollux sighed.

"Actually, no. It'th probably terrible thinthe I'm the one programming it, after all. I bet it thuckth. It probably won't even work."

"It'll work fine," Nepeta reassured him. "Actually, it sounds really cool! So who do you have lined up to beta-test, anyways?" Sollux thought for a moment.

"Me, you, Terezi, Feferi, the Empreth, thith jade-blood I'm friendth with called Karkat, Karkat'th friend Kanaya, and now Gamthee and Eridan. And the Empreth demanded three copieth, tho there'll be more. Tho eleven people." Sollux ticked them off on his fingers until he ran out of fingers. "There are two teamth, a red team and a blue team, and I need one more perthon two make them even."

"Teams? Who's on which team?"

"Eh, I wath thinking highbloodth verthuth lowbloodth and mutant. Tho me, you, GZ, FF, KK, and I gueth TZ verthuth everyone elthe, athuming TZ ith okay with playing againtht that Eridan guy. KK will flip hith thit if he doethn't get two be red team leader, and the highbloodth can choothe their own leader."

"I thought I was going to be the red team leader, but I guess it doesn't matter," Terezi stated, shrugging her shoulders and rubbing her eyes. "As for playing against Eridan, it sounds like a heck of a lot of fun. He'll have to watch his back." She sniffed around. "Nepeta, right? You smell goooooood," Terezi declared, licking her lips. Nepeta took a cautious step backwards. "Cherry candy."

"Lady Vantas? Lady Vantas, where art thou?" Just then, the Speaker made his way into the room. He appeared more than a little exasperated, and there was a pair of underwear tangled up in the points of his left horn. He looked rather the worse for wear.

"Oh. Speaker. It's mew."

"Thy words are sought by thy people. Thou ought speakest to them as I speakest to them, giveth them thy blessings and thy council."

"I'm assuming that means you want me to give another speech," Nepeta translated, rolling her eyes. "Well, I'm busy. Go away and I'll go preaching later."

"Thy people flockest to thee, wishing to hear thy words of wisdom. They are faithful, true and believing in thy greatness. Thou art their beloved, their savior, their idol. Speakest to thy people," Speaker commanded in frustration. Nepeta facepalmed.

"I will lock you in the clawset again if you don't get out of this block right meow," Nepeta threatened, unsheathing her claws.

Speaker left.

"Sorry about that," Nepeta apologized. Terezi snickered.

Nepeta's palmhusk started making noises again, signaling that somebody was trying to contact her. She pulled it out of her sylladex, grumbling. Whoever was trying to contact her was using her secondary chat name, the one she gave to Equius, but she didn't recognize their username.

* * *

~~arachnidsGoddess began trolling arsenicCatnip~~

AG: Ooooooooh, gr8y.

AG: So what 8lood color are you hiding 8ehind this lovely sl8 text of yours?

AC: :33 you're the empurress?

AC: :33 :?

AG: And you're Serk8t's mystery moirail 3::::)

AG: Glad we got that figured out.

AC: :33 why are you clawntacting me and what do you want

AG: Ooh, snappy.

AG: I was just curious who could actually put up with that sweaty jackass as a moirail.

AG: Pro8lem? 3::::)

AC: :33 maybe

AC: :33 well, you've talked to me, so you can go now

AC: :33 goodbye, good day, nice talking to you.

~~arsenicCatnip attempted to cease being trolled by arachnidsGoddess~~

AG: You can't leave until I let you.

AG: It's one of the 'perks' of my 8eing the ruler of all Alternia 3::::)

AC: :33 …

AG: Since Serk8t is 8eing all c8gey, I want to ask you myself—do you or do you not know a troll n8med Terezi Leijon?

AC: :33 I'll ask you what I asked equihiss—why do you want to know?

AG: Is that resistance?

AG: Are you actually d8ring to refuse to comply with the dem8nds of your Empress?

AC: :33 just tell me why you want to know about terezi

AG: I d8n't h8ve to t8ll y8u 8nyth8ng!

AC: :33 …I see.

AC: :33 so I won't tell you anything either. fur enough.

AG: T8LL M8 WH8T Y8U KN8W A8OUT T8R8Z8 L8IJON!

AG: N8W! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

AC: :33 …wow. that's a lot of shout poles.

AC: :33 and I'm afuraid I can't tell you anything about this terezi purrson.

AC: :33 I have no idea who she is.

AG: T8LL M8!

AC: :33 have a nice day, vwhiskers

~~arsenicCatnip ceased being trolled by arachnidsGoddess~~

AG: W8, wh8t?

AG: Th8t's n8t p8ssible!

~~the user arsenicCatnip does not exist~~

AG: WH8T? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

~~the user arsenicCatnip does not exist~~

~~arachnidsGoddess has smashed her fist through her husktop~~

* * *

"So what have you done to offend the Empurress?" Nepeta asked Terezi, who had attached herself to one of the scarlet banners on the sides of the chamber and was licking it enthusiastically. She looked up.

"Huh?"

"I was just trolled by the Empurress, demanding to know if I mew you. I don't even meow how she got my handle," Nepeta said. Terezi groaned.

"It's all about the game."

"Huh?"

"The game, Sgrub! The one that Sollux is making. The Empress wants to play and she wants to play soon, and it's not ready yet. She blinded me out of anger and she really hurt Eridan too, and now she's looking for me. She'll probably sic one of her mind-controllers on me if she finds out where I am," Terezi explained, extricating herself from the red banner.

"Why does it matter so much to her?" Terezi grinned, and for a lowblood her teeth were incredibly sharp.

"The Empress loves games. In fact, she thinks life is a game—and she's also pretty confident she'll win at it. I don't know her entire plot, but I know more than she thinks I do, and the gist of it is this: the game isn't just what Sollux thinks it is."

"What do you mean?" Nepeta demanded.

"Did you know that Feferi hears the voices of the soon to die?" Nepeta wordlessly shook her head. "Well, she does. And lately, her head has been ringing. We don't know exactly what's coming but whatever it is, it's huge, and almost the entire population of Alternia is doomed." Nepeta gasped, a sharp intake of breath.

"Mew mean—_efurryone?_"

"Yeah," Terezi confirmed, "everyone—except for us. The game is what will allow us to survive the end of the world, and Vriska Peixes wants in."

"I don't see how that's pawsible." Terezi only grinned.

"Come with me to the red temple in the desert, and I'll show you."

* * *

**A/N: Lots of chat logs in this one. Sorry about the wait (as usual)! To beat the dead horse, I have a very busy summer schedule. I'll be taking another approximately two-week break soon, and then my update schedule should even out a little bit. I'd like to post one chapter a week, but that schedule may not prove consistent due to my various obligations. **

**So what did you guys think about the chapter? Yes, I know, I didn't introduce Tavros, but I don't think I'm going to. I couldn't find a way to shoehorn him in there. We all know his stats at this point anyways: He's Tavros Ampora, he's eight sweeps old, his blood is violet. Blah blah blah. **

**Ehehehe I'm being mean to my various characters, but don't worry. I don't think I'm going to kill off anybody else any time soon; I have this weird problem with killing off characters. It bothers me, even when they're not my own. **

**Exposition next chapter. Maybe. Vriska's plot is confusing and convoluted, and mostly based on vague nonsense and weird theories that only fuchsias are privy to. And I still have to figure out how Sgrub is going to work, since the teams are different in this AU (but everyone dreams on their canon moon). The red temple is where it was in canon, out in the desert with Karkat. The blue temple, though, is not near Sollux. Instead, I've placed it a bit south of Kanaya and Equius. There will definitely be an explanation for why this is later, as well as how Sollux accessed it. **

**Thanks for the reviews, everybody! Last time I looked, I only had ten, but they're all very thoroughly appreciated. They swell my writing ego in the loveliest of ways. **


End file.
